


If It Weren’t For Second Chances, We’d All Be Alone

by ProstheticLoVe



Category: Veep (TV)
Genre: Dark! Amy and Dan, F/M, Humor, Rom-Com moments, Seasons 5-7, Second Chances, Spoilers, Supernatural Elements, Uncomfortable Moments, What-If, alternative universe, changing the future, set after 7X04
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-02-07 10:17:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 19,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18618601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProstheticLoVe/pseuds/ProstheticLoVe
Summary: He gave her a wide grin, pushed away any lingering weirdness he had about reliving a moment in time he’d already been in, and focused on what he could do differently with his second chance.After all, most people didn’t get an opportunity to relive a moment he wanted to change and this was Dan’s second chance looking him straight in the face. This time he wasn’t going to get in his own way and fuck things up. This time he was going to do what he should’ve done the first time around.





	1. Men In Bars

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I should not be starting another fic, but this one is short and manifested from my feelings from this current season. 
> 
> Disclaimer: No one belongs to me! They are all Iannucci!
> 
> It picks up right after 7x04. I have no idea what the timeline is. I tried looking it up on Wiki Fandom, but they said Amy/Dan had a fling in October 2018 and Amy took the position for campaign manager in May 2019, which is so not right since she took it right after she had the abortion and at that rate Amy would’ve been basically giving birth so...I’m trying to stick as close to the timeline as I can by also fixing major issues. (Much like I will be doing with a majority of the fic.) 
> 
> This story has supernatural elements, which is a bit weird for Veep, so we’ll see how this goes. I'm leaning into dark humor and what if possibilities. Let me know what you think!

_“A second chance doesn’t mean anything if you didn’t learn from your first.”_  
_-Anurag Prakash Ray_

* * *

 

The amber liquid sloshed around the glass tumbler leaving sticky-looking residue on the sides as Dan took it away from his lips and placed it back on the faux wood counter in front of him. Staring down at the liquid, he wondered briefly when things had become so fucked up. 

It hadn’t always been like this, obviously, he used to be...well, he never thought he’d be fired at least six times before he hit 40. 

He had been on Cloud Nine for the last few months, well maybe not since Amy had left, but since he had started BKD with Ben and Kent and Selina had began her campaign again. 

Everything seemed to click into places to get things back to how they had been before. Back to everyone being together and trying to get Selina elected as president. It had felt good for just a little while… 

Except right as he was beginning to get used to the idea of being on Team Meyer again, Amy had told him she was pregnant, and well, things took a bit of a turn. 

He had never wanted to be a dad and her getting pregnant just fucked everything up, which is probably why he had done some not-so-good things.

He didn’t regret anything he did, it wasn’t like Amy cared. She hadn’t said anything to him, except for liking the name Meaghan, but he figured she liked a lot of names. Meaghan Brookheimer had a nice ring to it, but so did Lena Brookheimer or Alana Brookheimer. If she changed her mind and wanted to add his last name, not that he wanted to be involved or anything, but Maya Brookheimer-Egan or Lilly Brookheimer-Egan were names he didn’t mind. He even sorta liked Rachel Brookheimer-Egan.

All he had wanted to do was knock some sense into Amy by showing her how unfit he was as a possible parent and she ended up doing exactly what he knew she would do i.e. abort the kid. 

He was happy with the outcome, for the most part.

It wasn’t like he wanted to be a dad.

Amy wasn’t pregnant with his kid - thank fucking God - and he didn’t have to worry about their relationship changing.

It was a win-win.

At least, that’s what he had been banking on when he sat beside her that day she recovered from the abortion. 

Granted, sleeping around probably wasn’t the smartest move, especially since his dick finally got him fired, but at the time, it made sense. He didn’t want to be a father and he knew Amy didn’t want to be a mother, at least not really.

He had a distant memory of being in a hospital room with her father after he had, had a heart attack or a stroke or whatever and Amy had declared that she didn’t want to have kids. He didn’t remember many things from that day, but he did remember that conversation distinctively - among other things from that day - which was why it seemed so out of left field that she suddenly wanted to have _his_ kid. 

But none of it mattered now since the kid was scraped clean and in a biodegradable bin somewhere or being used for experiments. 

He really didn’t give a shit.

He knew he wasn’t father material. 

Amy should know that too after being around him for such a long time.

What he did give a shit about was the fact that since the abortion and him helping to take care of her afterward, she’d barely said two words to him. He knew getting a promotion and going over to Jonah’s team was probably all consuming or whatever, but he figured she’d at least fucking call. 

Like, he gave her his _avid_ fucking support and she couldn’t even be bothered to return the texts or the emails he’d sent? He didn’t get why she suddenly had fallen off the map, he figured they were all good. 

This wasn’t like Nevada. 

Things could go back to how they were now that the abortion happened. Even though she was working for Jonah that didn’t mean she had to completely ignore him. But he hadn’t heard from her for months now. The closest he had come to seeing her was on the TV where she looked...not like Amy. He wasn’t sure what to think about it, so he figured he’d think about it once he saw her. He had called after seeing her on CNN, but even after giving her a compliment, she hadn’t returned his calls.

He wondered if she knew about Selina.

Selina...that was a whole other issue he didn’t want to deal with. He had figured fucking her would solidify his position on the team. He’d finally reached a point with her that Amy nor fucking Gary would ever reach, but now he was back to being jobless. 

Half of him wanted to just text Amy and tell her what had happened, but the other half was curious to know what expression she’d wear when he did tell her about Selina. It wasn’t like she’d be surprised. 

She knew him. 

She knew him better than anyone, which - again - was why he felt like it was so weird for her to even tell him she wanted the kid in the first place when she should’ve known he wasn’t dad material. 

He knew she wasn’t mom material.

Virtually, he had saved her from making a colossal fuck up. She should be _thanking_ him instead of ignoring him. 

By now she must know he was fired anyway, it had been 36 hours and he knew how quick the D.C. gossip traveled.

He almost figured that she’d be the one to call him and offer him a job, like she had when Sidney Purcell had fired him and she needed him for the Nevada recount.

Sipping the remains of his drink, he touched the phone that rested in front of him almost willing it to vibrate. He was considering texting her to ask if she wanted to grab a customary Dan-Just-Got-Fired-Again drink. 

They had started the tradition after the first time, so long ago when they were in the White House and he took the fall for the data breach. 

It was sorta their thing. Like so many other facets of their relationship he only really felt comfortable doing with her.

Getting a drink after a long day and just...rehashing what had happened. Scheming, planning, manipulating, and trashing every little and big thing over a scotch for him and a tonic and vodka with a slice of lemon for her.

But here he was drinking his I-Just-Got-Fired drink alone and Amy was nowhere in sight. 

His grip tightened on his cell phone and he wondered yet again why he had decided to walk into the trap Selina had basically set for him. He should’ve known something was up, but lately he seemed to be going with whatever was around him and reacting to it, instead, of acting before it happened. 

Sleeping with women who were there just because seemed to become his default setting unlike how he used to wine and dine women for a career-related reasons.

He wasn’t sure when he made the switch and for awhile he didn’t care, but lately, he just felt like there was something he wasn’t seeing, like he was reading voter stats and something wasn’t clicking when everyone else noticed what was missing.

Maybe it was the fact he knew he wasn’t going to be able to keep this up for much longer, especially as he was nearing his 40th birthday in a week. His little meltdown about getting older couldn’t be put off much longer as the greys in his hair seemed to multiply every time he looked in a mirror. 

Maybe he had some lingering side effects from Amy dumping the pregnancy shit on him, but really he hadn’t thought about that psycho midlife crisis episode of hers since they’d left the clinic.

There was also the fact that sometimes he just...he just needed to fill a hole and he wasn’t sure how to do that. Sex seemed like the most logical step for him, but it just left him feeling physically sated and mentally deflated.

Lately, he didn’t seem to be thinking about any of the consequences whereas years ago he had consistently schemed to get to where he was and now he was without a job. 

Again. 

Fired. 

Again. 

But this time, he didn’t have anyone he could - he could rely on to help pick himself up. Amy had always been there to help him find a job again or talk some sense into Selina, the last time she had even suggested he talk to Kent and Ben about setting up a consulting firm, but now, he was just...alone.

“Fucking pathetic.” he muttered picking up the glass and drinking the remaining liquid. He considered heading back to his apartment a few blocks away, but the thought of going back to the dark and empty place seemed kinda depressing. He had been in the apartment all day trying to contact someone to help get him a job, but it was almost like every bridge he’d carefully crafted and built had been burned for one reason or another. 

Mostly it was because he had stuck his dick where he shouldn’t, he wasn’t that oblivious, but he figured that shouldn’t be such a deterient. He wasn’t really sure what was going on since he had always figured he was too irresistible for people to completely shut him out. Unfailingly, he knew he could weasel his way back in wherever he wanted to go.

However, after the day he’d had, he seemed to hit a stone wall.

Where did you go after being a Deputy of Communications for the Veep and then the President? What did you do after being an anchorman on TV or a lobbyist for Sidney Purcell? He knew he had doors that could be opened to him, but he wasn’t sure how he could manipulate his way in, especially when no one was willing to take his calls.

He remembered Amy telling him - two firings ago - he was more toxic than a urinal cake in Chernobyl and he wondered what she’d say now when he couldn’t even get someone on the phone long enough to get them to hear his elevator speech.

“Rough day?” 

Dan looked up from staring at his phone to find a guy around Ben’s age sitting beside him. The guy had a full head of white hair and bright blue eyes, which strangely enough reminded him of Jeff Bridges. Dan took note of the raggedy jeans - definitely not on-purpose tattered - and the button down flannel shirt, neither of which looked expensive or tailored, which meant the guy didn’t care about appearances. 

Maybe it was his demeanor or how he was looking at Dan like he was sizing him up and getting ready to call him a dickhead when he hadn’t even done anything, but Dan couldn’t shake the feeling that you shouldn’t fuck with this guy.  
It was probably the three straight scotches he’d consumed in about an hour that was making him think that he was spending time with a mashup of an Academy-award winning actor and his partner at BKD. 

Blinking rapidly, Dan tried to clear the fog from his head and focus on the guy in front of him. His luck could be turning around, this guy may be a bigger deal than he looked.

“I got fired yesterday.” Dan acknowledged because besides the bartender, the guy was the first person he had talked to all day. It was strange to go from being a hot commodity to a pariah in under 48 hours and Dan wasn’t used to being ignored, so he’d take whatever conversation topic this guy wanted.

The stranger made a face and reached into his jacket pocket to pull something out. At first, Dan thought it was going to be a business card, but instead, it ended up being a cigar.

“Got a light?” the older man asked.

Dan gritted his teeth and turned a bit away from the guy to face the bar straight on. He was torn between wanting to talk to the man - he might have connections - and ignoring everything because rehashing his firing with some stranger didn’t exactly sound like a fun Wednesday night.

“No.”

He saw the guy shrug out of his peripheral vision and Dan figured he’d move on to ask someone else, but a few seconds later the cigar was burning and smoke was billowing around them.

Dan opened his mouth to ask the man why he had even asked for a lighter if he had one, but before he could get too far, the guy cleared his throat.

“Do you want another one?” the stranger asked waving at Dan’s empty glass.

Dan shrugged, but his empty apartment popped back into his mind and he nodded, “sure, why not.”

“Then wave down the bartender.” the guy chuckled and Dan scowled at the stranger’s attempt to be funny. Was this man sent to just fucking torment him when he was already in a shitty mood? He knew he did shitty stuff, but he didn’t think he deserved to be exposed to unfunny fuckers after getting fired for the millionth time.

“Listen, fu--”

“I’m just playing with you, kid.” the guy said as the bartender came over and delivered a drink without the older man or Dan saying anything. “So why did you get fired?”

Dan paused considering if he really wanted to talk to this stranger, but it was evident that Amy didn’t give a shit about him getting fired again, so he figured what could it hurt. It wasn’t like there was anyone waiting for him at home. 

“I slept with my boss.” he said after a lengthy pause.

The guy chuckled, “was she hot?”

Dan bit the inside of his lip unsure how to answer that. Sure, Selina was attractive, but describing her as hot was just...weird. He wondered again why he had decided to travel down that hole when he had, had the chance so many years earlier and had neglected to take advantage of it then. Maybe he had always subconsciously wanted to travel down that road and now that Amy was out of the picture...

“I mean, she’s not a dog.” Dan said finally.

The stranger cocked an eyebrow and regarded him cooly, “something tells me that you aren’t as into her after she fired you.”

“I wasn’t exactly into her before she fired me either.”

“Why did you do it then?”

Dan shrugged, “I guess I could ask the same from her. Maybe because we were both there and we’d had a big win...and it just seemed...logical. We’ve worked together for years...it just never seemed to be there before and then Amy left and--”

“Who’s Amy?”

Dan laughed under his breath and took a long sip of his scotch, enjoying the burn as it descended down his throat. 

How did he describe Amy?

What was Amy to him now?

The not-mother-to-be of his abortion child?

His friend?

Coworker?

Ex-lover?

Who was Amy, indeed?

“She’s...complicated.” he said finally.

The man leaned in slightly and blew a cloud of smoke toward the mirror behind the bar. “Sounds like you have some shit going on.”

“Yeah, seems that way.”

There was a long pause as both men took a drink and unsurprisingly, it was broken by the stranger.

“Tell me, did you sleep with your boss because this girl, Amy, left?”

“What? No! That’s...Amy has nothing to do with Se--my boss.”

“Then why did you do it?”

Dan shrugged, “why do anything? She was there and I wanted to.”

“But you had no desire to do it before?”

“Yeah, I mean...it wasn’t an attraction thing. It was more a power...I don’t know why the fuck I’m telling you this.”

“Because this is a bar and you were fired.” the stranger said smirking at Dan.

Dan scowled and took another sip of his drink, letting the scotch swish around his mouth. His vision was beginning to get a little fuzzy and the burning sensation in his stomach was escalating, so he knew that he was probably more drunk than he thought.

“Listen, I’ve fucked up a lot lately. Fucking my boss wasn’t the worst thing I’ve done. If Amy was here, she would laugh, probably, maybe, and then bitch at me about her sister or some shit. Or I guess the abortion. We never really talked about that.” Dan rambled.

The guy regarded him through cool eyes, “I don’t know what to glob onto first, but it sounds like Amy is important to you.”

“Yeah, I guess. She’s...she’s just Amy. I like her. A lot. As a friend, though. I mean...she’s the only woman...we’re friends. Yeah.”

“Where’s she now?”

“I haven’t talked to her since...the abortion stuff.” Dan said doggedly

The stranger laughed, “I doubt you’ll hear from her again. Friends or not.”

Turning to glare at him, Dan said, “you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“Maybe not, but she’s not here either.”

Grumbling, Dan took another sip of his drink and the effects of the alcohol seemed to dull his senses a bit more. He knew he should order a water to help with the hangover he was sure to have tomorrow, but he just really wanted to get as drunk as possible and forget the last 36 hours - hell, maybe the last few months - or years. He could definitely do without talking anymore to this guy, but he was too drained to tell the stranger to fuck off.

He’d keep the visual of fucking Selina, though. While she wasn’t the best he’d ever had - nowhere near, actually - he took a little pride in having fucked an ex-president. Also, a person who reminded him so much of himself, even if he’d never voiced that little tidbit out loud.

He liked to think that the fact they were so similar was one of the reasons why they got along so well and they tended to see things the same way.

He by no means liked Selina, but he respected her and he understood why she acted the way she did.

A long time ago, Amy had once pointed out how similar they were after Selina had been promoted to President and it had resonated with him for some time. He used to think of Selina more as someone he didn’t want to turn into - besides being president, she had some serious issues - but now, he figured that it wasn’t so bad being someone in a position of power with loyal people all around you doing everything you wanted without thinking of the consequences. 

It was better sitting in a bar with some stranger drinking scotch at 5pm on a Wednesday night.

“Yeah, she should be fucking _thanking_ me. If it wasn’t for me, she’d be dealing with dirty diapers and snot-filled noses instead of...instead of working with Jonah.”

He felt the guy’s eyes rest on him and he shifted in his seat feeling a bit uncomfortable suddenly.

“I told her I didn’t want the kid and I guess, showed her that I’d be a shit parent.” Dan attempted to explain.

“How did you do that?”

“I slept with a few people--”

“Your boss included.”

“Yeah, and her sister.”

The guy chuckled darkly, “if I was her, I’d be running for the hills and away from you.”

Dan scowled, “you don’t know shit about Amy and I.” 

“Again, maybe not, but I’m here and she’s not.”

Dan picked up his glass and downed the remaining amber liquid. “She’ll come back.” he said shortly.

He could feel the guy’s eyes burning into him. “Hypothetically speaking. If you had the chance, would you change what’s happened between the two of you?”

“Yes.” he said so quickly he surprised himself. 

“What would you change?”

Dan paused torn between wanting to give an answer and wondering if there was even really a point. It wasn’t like he could change anything that happened. No matter what use talking to this guy would be, it wasn’t like he’d have an opportunity to go back and un-fuck Sophie - both times - or...this conversation was pointless.

And yet, he started to answer the question, his tongue felt heavy and thick in his mouth, evidence that he was drunker than he thought.

“I wouldn’t have slept with her sister. I mean, that’s what started the whole...clusterfuck situation. Before Sophie, we were...we were inseparable...it was just Amy and I...then I guess, I would’ve talked to her about the abortion shit. I would’ve tried to get her to see why I didn’t want kids instead of just...not talking and then I guess the abortion in general. I like not having kids, but sometimes...what if? You know.” Dan rambled as he stared at the light bouncing off the glass. His eyes felt heavy and he let out a big yawn feeling weirdly exhausted even though he had barely done anything today except drink and make pointless phone calls.

Looking up, he blinked rapidly to find that he was alone. Glancing around the bar, he noticed that it was virtually empty except for some twenty-something guys drinking in the corner and the bartender at the other side of the bar flirting with one of the waitresses. He wondered if the guy had ever even been there or he’d just drank so much scotch he was actually hallucinating. Fumbling with his wallet, he threw some bills on the counter and stumbled out of the bar.

He was lucky that he only lived a few blocks away because as he walked down the street and toward his empty apartment, his vision was blurry and his legs felt heavy with the alcohol he had consumed weighing down. He was pretty sure he bumped into a few happy hour stragglers and definitely tripped more times than he was willing to admit. 

Upon making his way into his posh apartment, he barely made it through the door before falling onto the couch and into a deep sleep.

* * *

 

The first thing Dan took note of when he woke up was that he should never fall asleep on his couch again. 

While it had costed him a pretty penny, it was the most uncomfortable thing he’d ever fallen asleep on. The surface under his cheek was hard and when he moved even the tiniest bit, he felt like he was crammed into a tiny space.  
That didn’t even take into account the angle he was positioned at. It was almost like he had fallen asleep sitting up instead of passed out on the couch.

He wanted to keep his eyes closed for a few extra minutes before the pain of the hangover took over, but his mouth was dry and he wanted something to drink to remove the remnants of scotch from his tongue. He braced himself for the impact of a hangover headache as he slowly opened his eyes, but instead of feeling pain at the light hitting his senses, he felt confusion. 

Blinking rapidly, he took in the familiar sight of sitting on an airplane. The tray table was down in front of him where a small airplane cup filled with water sat. Besides the tray table in front of him, it was just like every other airplane ride he had taken, except he was pretty sure he was in economy. 

That explained the mass amount of discomfort he felt while waking up, but also, _what the fuck_?

The airplane was dark, which suggested that it was either very early or very late. The window seat he occupied had the shutter closed and the seat beside him was empty except for a black coat. 

Staring straight ahead at the seat in front of him, he was a little afraid to catch anyone’s eye. He didn’t remember getting onto a plane at all, which meant he wasn’t sure what kind of scene he had made and if he didn’t remember leaving his Manhattan apartment to get on a plane to... _where the fuck was he headed?_ Then what exactly was going on? He knew he didn’t drink that much to forget several hours, so was there something in his drink? Had he been drugged? 

Frowning, he wondered what exactly had happened last night. Did he buy a ticket to...somewhere? Where would he have gone after passing out on his couch drunk? How had he even gotten to the airport? What the fuck was going on? Was he hallucinating? Had he started sleep walking? Did an ex kidnapped him? 

He felt panic began to well in his chest and he tried to squash it down before it could infiltrate his head. His momentary thirst forgotten, Dan tried to grasp onto reason as he tried to figure out why he was on an airplane.

But nothing came to mind besides the fact he must have lost his fucking mind or been drugged, either was honestly possible at this point.

Biting the inside of his cheek, he tried to remain calm until he could try to figure out what was going on. The first item he checked for was his wallet, which he found in his suit pocket. Then his cell phone, which was exactly where it always was, beside his wallet. 

However, the suit he noticed he was wearing was one that he didn’t own anymore. It was a suit he had gotten rid of when he began working at CBS because it wasn’t power-hungry enough for him.

As he took in the bizarre reappearance of his suit, the person beside him came to sit back down. He only saw a swish of blonde hair out of his peripheral vision as he struggled to stay calm, but he would recognize that voice anywhere and immediately he felt a surge of relief course through him.

“...fucking flight attendants can’t even tell me when we’re going to land. We’re already running late.” Amy muttered as she moved her coat from the airplane seat and tried to make herself comfortable.

He stared at her feeling even more confused, but at least a little comforted.

If Amy was here, then it probably wasn’t as bad as he thought.

Still though, what had he gotten himself into last night? Where had Amy come from? Had she finally fucking called him after he got fired? Had she come to bring him onto Jonah’s campaign?

“What?” he rasped out because her words slowly began to sink in and he was confused as to what exactly they were running late for. It could really be anything at this point, he had no fucking idea.

She glanced at him and crinkled her eyebrows. “What?”

“What did you say?”

She scowled, “I know you were sleeping like the fucking dead, Dan, but if you could stop dreaming of fucking flight attendants long enough for us to get some work done before we land, that would be great.”

He blinked. “What work?”

She rolled her eyes so hard he momentarily wondered if they’d stay like that. “What do you mean, _what work_? I know that you were just hired back on, but I figured that one day out of a job wouldn’t make you lazy.”

He smirked feeling a little more settled. Obviously, he had been drunk when Amy called and she needed his help with something, so she wrangled him together and got him on the plane to...wherever they were needed to make sure

Jonah didn’t make an ass of himself. He was probably half asleep during all of it, which was why he didn’t remember.

Now that he was sober, the memories - and the hangover effects, which had yet to show up - would probably hit him like an airplane crashing into a building. “So you finally did call, huh?”

“What?”

“You knew I had been fired again--”

“All of D.C. knows that.”

“And so you decided to help me get a job, again.” 

“Well, I did need your help.”

“Of course, it _is_ Jonah.” he said chuckling, sitting back in the chair, and finally taking a sip of the water that was on the tray table in front of him. 

He was starting to feel normal again and the water he had so desperately wanted when he woke up was finally sounding enticing. He had no memory of how he had ended up in this situation, but he was with Amy and he figured he’d be able to find it out eventually. Besides, Amy was acting like her old self, which meant they were back on the same team, mentally, and especially physically if she had called him for help with Jonah. He knew Amy would tell him how he ended up on the plane, it probably wasn’t anything serious, after all. He figured he’d just--

“I mean, the Nevada recount is going to - wait, huh?” she said.

He nearly spit out the water he had just taken a sip of at the words ‘Nevada recount’ causing him to go into a coughing fit.

“Wait - _Nevada recount_?” he rasped unable to keep the disbelief from his voice once he could breathe again.

“What the fuck does _Jonah_ have to do with anything?” she asked frowning at him.

He swallowed and tried to keep his heart from beating out of his chest. There was obviously some mistake. They hadn’t even reached Super Tuesday yet.

“What do you mean, Nevada recount?” he asked ignoring her question.

She scowled, “Did you slip into a coma while I was in the bathroom? Are you going through some short-term memory loss bullshit due to getting fired again?”

“What does Nevada have to do with any of this?” he asked cagily.

She crinkled her nose and squinted her eyes, a look he recognized as her trying to sniff out his bullshit. 

“Do you seriously not remember me calling you for help with the Nevada recount? You just got fired by Sidney--”

“Fucking Sidney.” he muttered because even though it was two firings ago, that one had stung a little more than the others even the fourth time around with Selina - if he counted the time she’d fired him after he flipped out about the abortion weeks when he was campaign manager and the breakdown he had ending his term as campaign manager, which he sometimes did, depending on the day.

“...and I called you while you were eating a sandwich.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it.” he said feeling a weird sensation in his stomach. He pinched himself self-consciously wondering if he was just having some weird déjà vu dream, but the pinch hurt and the nauseous feeling in his stomach was very real.

He considered that he had finally lost all of his fucking marbles after this last firing. Was he seriously on a plane headed to Nevada, _again_? He looked down at his phone and noticed that indeed the date was three years prior, which meant that Amy was, unfortunately, not fucking with him. 

Also, as he looked closer at his phone and the watch on his wrist, he noticed that they were older than the ones he had now. His phone was two versions ago and his watch was another item he had stopped wearing when he had reached CBS anchorman status. In fact, he hadn’t worn this watch since Nevada three years previously. 

So even if he thought Amy was just fucking with him, he couldn’t argue the facts.

Some fucking how he was reliving a day three years ago. 

What the holy fucking shit on her tits was going on?

He pinched himself again subtly to see if he was dreaming, but the action seriously hurt. His stomach turned and he felt his heartbeat rise as the reality of the situation was sinking in. He wondered if he could get away with heading to the small airplane bathroom to try and talk some sense into himself, but the seatbelt sign came on and he knew he was stuck where he was. He needed to focus on calming down and thinking rationally.

He glanced at Amy and saw that she was watching him strangely and he worried momentarily what his face was doing because inside he was freaking out, but he didn’t want her to know that something was wrong. Even though she was the closest person in his life, there was no way she’d fucking believe that he had already lived this day three years ago.

What the fuck was in his drink?

And why in holy fucking shit was he living some 90s Bill Murry movie?

“So, we’re going to Nevada?” he said quietly for lack of anything else to say because he had no idea how to react to this news. 

He was in 2016...2.0.1.6. When he should be in 2019...how many what the fucks could he ask before the reality of his situation would sink in?

He bit his lip and tried to keep his breathing from escalating. He tried to focus on Amy and what she was saying.

“Yes.” she said narrowing her eyes a bit more at him and then in an uncharacteristic move she asked him if he was okay.

“Yeah, just...yeah. Déjà vu.” he stumbled out because he wasn’t about to tell her the truth. He already felt crazy and he didn’t want to...acknowledge that he felt like he was having a repeat of London, except you know fucking more insane. 

She nodded once and then pressed the flight attendant button. He vaguely listened to the conversation the red headed flight attendant and Amy had, but for the most part, he was focused on what exactly this meant. 

Here were the facts: He was on an airplane that he’d already been on three years previously. Amy was here. He had just been ‘fired’ again by Sidney. They were on their way to Nevada for the recount.

What did all of this mean?

What was going on?

Was he having some sort of regression episode after his latest firing?

Was any of this real?

His mind wandered back to the strange man in the bar and the conversation they had, had. But the idea...the _mere_ thought was too crazy to fucking handle, so he pushed all of that bullshit away and focused on what he did know and what he could control.

After all, when the mind was faced with nonsensical bullshit, it needed to rationalize and Dan could only rationalize so much because if he actually dealt with what the fuck was going on, he would seriously lose it on this fucking airplane and he already knew what people thought about him after London.

He could already see the headline ‘Danny Egan goes Ape-Shit On An Airplane After 500th Firing: Will He Spend His Days In An Asylum Or Work His Way Back Up To Political Power?’

So he decided to focus on what did make sense.

He was headed to Nevada again and from what he remembered about this day three years ago they were headed into the Nevada recount and Sophie showed up with Amy’s clothes...and...Amy and Sophie.

Suddenly the pieces began to click into place and the words he had spoke last night began to slide through his head like he was reading Tweets.

_I wouldn’t have slept with her sister. I mean, that’s what started the whole...clusterfuck situation. Before Sophie, we were...we were inseparable...it was just Amy and I…_

He knew that against whatever odds, this was another chance for Nevada. He wasn’t sure how long he had or what this really meant, but he was sent back to this day for a reason...and he had a pretty good idea of what he wanted to change. 

Again, he replayed the day in his mind or at least as much as he could remember. He wondered what would happen if he actually got to do what he had so desperately wanted to do last time. 

Now was his chance to act. 

Why else would he be reliving this day?

If he could push away all the fucking weirdness of the situation he was in, then maybe he could...maybe he could find out what would’ve happened if Sophie never actually showed up. This time in Nevada he was going to make it right, especially with what he already knew and what he could use for an advantage. 

Granted, he didn’t remember the whole day, but he remembered the important parts such as Sophie showing up because Amy forgot her clothes or whatever.

And their adjacent hotel rooms.

“Hey, Ames.” he said when the flight attendant left.

“Here.” she said pushing a plastic cup toward him.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“Scotch, dumb-fuck, now drink it because we have a long day ahead.” she said taking a sip of her own clear drink. 

He smirked and continued on with his question, “did you already call your family to bring your suitcase?”

“I left a message. I doubt they’ll get it.” she said breezily, “why?”

“Just wondering.” he said vaguely.

She cast him a curious look, “it doesn’t matter much anyway. We have to get to the recount right when we land. I don’t have time to deal with…” she trailed off.

“It’s fine, Ames, just leave it to me.” he said giving her a debanior smile.

She narrowed her eyes at him, “uh, what?”

“Just--”

“I’m not your Barbie, Dan.”

“I know that.”

“I’m not dressing up as one of your--”

“I know that, Ames. Let me just...help you. As a thank you for the job.” he said quickly.

She gave him a calculated look, but seemed to drop it as the pilot announced their decent.

He gave her a wide grin, pushed away any lingering weirdness he had about reliving a moment in time he’d already been in, and focused on what he could do differently this time around.

After all, most people didn’t get second chances and this was Dan’s looking him straight in the face and this time he wasn’t going to get in his own way.

 

 


	2. Machiavellian Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A part of him was curious to see what would’ve happened if he had just...if he followed after Amy that night and made her see… 
> 
> He had always pushed those thoughts away because he never actually thought Amy would go for it - she was too smart to deal with his bullshit - but that didn’t stop him from thinking about the ‘what ifs.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who read and liked this story! I know it's a weird one, but I wanted to do something a bit different. As usual though, my small story is turning into a monster, so it may be a bit longer than the 5 chapters aforementioned and may be more than 7 that I changed it to...but we'll see. 
> 
> I needed something cathartic after this season, which I'm not exactly enjoying and I wanted to update before the finale. I honestly, haven't been able to watch after the 3rd episode because Dan made me feel so icky. But I am planning on watching the finale if only because it was such a great show and will hopefully keep me inspired instead of making me never want to read or write Dan/Amy again. Anywho, please let me know what you think! (P.S. if you read my other story, I should have it updated before Sunday as well.)

_Opportunities multiply as they are seized._

_-Sun Tzu_

If Dan actually stopped to think about what was going on, he’d probably lose his shit, like the whole fucking bag of sanity that hadn’t been shaken out of him after years of dealing with political power plays and dicking around would completely implode. He’d be flipping things, cursing everyone out, and genuinely having a breakdown, unlike London when he _definitely_ didn’t have a nervous - mental health issue.

However, right now, he was trying to keep it together and focus on what exactly this could mean for him. He was trying to remain calm as they went through the motions of getting off the plane and headed to the rent a car section of the airport. Obviously, he was sent back to this day for a reason and probably by the stranger in the bar, that much he gathered, but _why_?

He wasn’t a good person.

He knew he would never be a good person.

For this reason, he didn’t understand why this was happening.

Why was he given a second chance when he so completely didn’t deserve it?

Sure, he had probably thought about what would happen if he never fucked Amy’s sister half a dozen - maybe more - times, but now, he actually got to make that a reality.

So, the big question that rested on his mind was: _why now?_ Why was he able to change what had happened now? Where was this strange Jeff Bridges looking fucker two years ago when he had made this mistake? And if he was going to buy into all of this time travel bullshit, would him changing what happened in the past affect the future?

Also, would he be stuck in this time period forever a la _Back To The Future_?

Honestly, though, did he really fucking care?

Reliving the last two years wouldn’t be so bad...he already knew what would happen and maybe he could capitalize on it. _Also_ , could the reality he lived in now really be worse than whatever would happen if he changed a few things?

What was the worst thing that could really happen? Except maybe he was dead or woke up married to some ugo.

If he told anyone that he’d already lived this day before - even Amy - they would have him committed, for real this time. Most people tended to think you were insane when you told them you were currently living in a Tom Hanks movie, so Dan had no intention of saying anything. Besides, he wasn’t even sure that this was real and if it was, what would he actually say?

_‘Hey, Ames. Guess what? I know everything that’s going to happen in the next three years because I’m from the future. Please, don’t go to Nevada and let’s not waste any more time on Selina. Thanks.’_

That didn’t sound likely.

As bizarre a situation as this was, he sorta wanted to enjoy it. Seriously though, what was the fucking worst thing that could happen?

He was already in a career slump. That much was obvious after his latest firing from Selina via Keith-the-secret-sociopath-Quinn

While his sex life was at the height of his life, he wasn’t necessarily happy with it and a part of him was curious to see what would’ve happened if he had just...if he followed after Amy that night and made her see…

He had always pushed those thoughts away because he never actually thought Amy would go for it - she was too smart to deal with his bullshit - but that didn’t stop him from thinking about the ‘what ifs.’

To make sure this was real, he had done all of the cliche things to figure if he was hallucinating or dreaming such as pinching himself, looking at a clock, and splashing water on his face once he was able to escape to the airport bathroom for some alone time.

He could tell that Amy was feeling a bit...wary of him, so when he came out of the bathroom, he tried to act as normal as he could.

However, it was a bit difficult when he wasn’t really sure how to act.

Before, he was focused on the campaign and what it meant to be back on Team Meyer. Amy and him were ready to take down Nevada.

But this time, he knew what was going to happen and he knew where all of the weak links were i.e knowing they would get the required 512 ballots, the fact that old fucker Selina was obsessed with had Alzheimer's or whatever, and he had the advantage of knowing Sophie was coming.

He also knew all of the right answers this time and maybe he could...have a bit of fun with that. Instead of focusing on work, maybe he could enjoy focusing on something else, like what would happen if he got Amy to let lose a bit and give in to him earlier than before or at least for the first time since they had dated all of those years ago?

He could also take advantage of knowing all of the right things to do and say...he was all for showing her up and looking like the smartest fucker in the room.

Which he already was, but sometimes he just needed some validation to prove to Amy and everyone else that he still had it.

It was definitely a win-win to keep calm and just enjoy it.

For all intents and purposes, he was going to make today a win, especially when lately, he had made so many poor mistakes.

As they got the rental car, Dan finally broke the silence.

Well, he interrupted Amy from her long rant about work. That’s all she had been going on about since they had left the airplane, which was fine since he was too busy trying to make sense of what was going on, but now he felt like he had a better grasp on reality and what he wanted this second go-around to be.

He was going to enjoy this, that much he knew.

Also, he was trying to remember exactly what today had been like three years previously. Obviously, he remembered the big stuff, but what about the small stuff?

“...And I just think--”

“Ames, I’m having a genius moment.” Dan exclaimed interrupting her because he didn’t feel like listening to more of what she was rattling on about, but also, he had no idea what she had been saying for the last 20 minutes.

She glanced at him curiously, “oh, so now, you’d like to contribute? Where the fuck have you been, Dan? I swear I felt like I was fucking talking to a sociopathic Ken doll.”

“Ha, ha.” he snipped and then got serious, “when we get to the office, we need to file the precinct changes, but also I think we should hire the Secretary of State James Whitman to oversee our recount.”

Amy blinked and then nodded, “yeah, that’s...I’ll tell Selina to hire him.”

Dan smirked, “good.”

She shot him a suspicious look, but continued driving toward the building for the recount. “You know, tomorrow is going to be even more massive than today. Are you...are you going to be okay with that?” she demanded.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well, just how you were...on the plane. I mean you just seemed...freaked out. Like London.” she stated focusing on the road.

“I’m fine.” he said shortly and then deciding to change the subject he added, “anyway, how did you forget your entire suitcase?”

“I didn’t! I just need a few more outfits. I think we’re going to be here for longer than I thought. I only brought a few changes of clothes because...well, I was rushing and I’m not you Mr. Twenty Suits On Hand.”

He chuckled and for the first time in what felt like too long he began to relax. Even before waking up on the airplane this morning and feeling out of control, he realized as he sat there in the car with Amy that it had been a long time since he just felt at ease, especially with Amy. They could just sit in each other’s company without anything getting in the way.

For the last three years, they had constantly been shit on and pulled in other directions. Granted, he loved being on TV, but even that had lost its charm.

From trying to make Selina win, to her losses, and let’s not forget Amy flipping a shit and running to Nevada and then the two years they didn’t really talk. Plus, when she did come back into his life, she had been different.

Now, was the first time they felt like, well, them. Going to put out another fire and doing it together. Bouncing ideas off of each other, sitting in comfortable silence, it was all things Dan hadn’t really realized he missed until he was confronted with them again.

They tended to be together all of the time at this point, before Sophie or the abortion and the pregnancy and all of the shit that seemed to build up over years of not talking about anything that had to do with what was going on outside of work.

It was so weird to realize that while Amy was his favorite person and who knew the most about him, it was always infinitely difficult to actually have a legitimate conversation with her about anything that involved them.

To the point where he never even thought of them as anything beyond friends/coworkers/evil-geniuses-who-were-bent-on-wrecking-political-upheaval-and-welding-power.  
Sure, he had often tried to get her to succumb to him - and succeeded at long last before the big pregnancy revelation that softened his dick quicker than seeing Jonah french his step/half-sister - but it had taken years to get her to give in.

There was that time before they started lobbying together where Amy had seemed like she thought he was going to ask her something that didn’t have to do with work...he had poised it on purpose in a flirtatious manner to see what she was thinking, but she had clammed up and that had been that.

Until, of course, she got back from Nevada and jumped him so quick after their drinks with Ben.

The thing was, though, Amy did feelings less than he did, no matter what she said. She tended to shut down when confronted with having to discuss what was going on in her head or her heart, besides the obvious like she was filled with rage today because someone had massively taken a shit on her agenda.

Which is why when she did get pregnant and asked him to talk about it with her, he figured him telling her he wasn’t interested at all in anything baby-related it would get into her mind that he just didn’t want to deal with it, unless it was about how much money he owed her for the abortion, which he still never paid her.

Maybe the reason he had some back to this point in time was because it was time for them to explore what never happened between them and what he always thought could.

Obviously, some of the issues were probably his fault. He probably shouldn’t have fucked her sister or rubbed her face in it.

Granted, they were able to explore what happened between them further down the line which resulted in her getting pregnant, but this was different. They didn’t have two years of bullshit sitting between them, which neither of them wanted to talk about.

Sophie was something that wouldn’t go away, which he knew grated on her nerves, even though she only laughed at him. Then there was Selina, which he didn’t even know if she knew about. There was also fucking Buddy-Twinkie-Dick-Face-Calhoun who had spectacularly weaseled his way into Amy’s life when...when she should’ve just come with him to New York and...well, he wasn’t sure, but at the time, he had figured that she would just follow him once it was obvious that Selina was done.

Of course, none of it worked out and instead, they had to dumpster dive through all of their collective issues, which neither of them wanted to do, so all of this shit just hung there left unsaid like the voting ballots they were going to have to search for through this shistain county in Nev-AD-Da.

Right now, at least, in Amy’s mind, he’d never done anything outwardly awful to her. In fact, they were closest at this point than they ever were and ever would be again.

They spent all day and sometimes all night together to the point where going a few hours not seeing her was weird.

When they had been lobbying all of the time, Amy and him were inseparable and that spilled over to the Nevada recount before Sophie and Buddy and the fucking drinks with

Ben and the pregnancy that he wished had never happened in the first place. He wasn’t even sure how the Selina stuff would fit in.

He hadn’t ever really understood how important she had been to him until he was sitting faced with the past while already knowing the future.

“I didn’t bring twenty suits this time. But I was smart enough to not have to call my sister to send me some clothes.” he said playfully.

She smirked slightly, “I hate to break it to you, but just because you had one good idea about hiring the Secretary of State doesn’t mean you’re a certified genius.”

“Okay then. How about we make a bet based on what happens today.” he said confidently.

The wheels were rapidly swirling in his head to create a plan that would be devious, titillating, and probably a little Machiavellian, but knowing Amy, she would enjoy it. She was very competitive after all, much like he was. It was one of the things he truly enjoyed about her.

“Isn’t getting a recount enough of a victory?” she asked.

“No, not when we know that Selina will get the recount.”

“Do we know that?” she asked giving him a suspicious look.

He nodded, “yeah, we do.”

She raised her eyebrows at him at a stop light and he just gave her a smirk in reply.

“Fine. What are the stakes?”

“We get the precinct changes by tomorrow to the lawyers, you have to go get drinks with me.” he said giving her a wolfish grin.

She pulled into the parking lot of the recount center and then smoothly into a vacant spot. Shutting the car off after putting it into park, she turned to him with narrowed eyes and Dan knew she was stalling to give him an answer.

“We usually get drinks.” she stated.

“Yeah, but it would be a _date_ ,” his smirk widened when he saw her visibly pale.

“ _Date_?” she asked as if it were a nasty word.

He shrugged and moved to get out of the car. “We can just call it drinks. I can see the discomfort settling in your eyes like a gastric bypass patient facing a world without junk food and sugar.”

She glared at him, “fine, but if it takes two days, which is what they predicted by the way, then you need to deal with Jonah and Richard the rest of the time we’re here.”

“Deal.” he said reaching a hand out to shake hers.

She looked down at it for a moment and then up to meet his eyes, “game on.” she said finally taking his hand to solidify the deal.

They shook on it and then Amy darted across the parking lot to begin setting up the recount center. He lingered outside for a moment to make sure she wasn’t within hearing distance before he got his phone out to look up the number for the hotel they were staying at in Carson City.

“Hi, yeah. There’s a reservation under Crawford for four rooms...yeah, there’s been a cancellation in our party. Can you change it to three?” Dan said when the receptionist picked up.

“Of course, just give me a few minutes and I’ll need some information.” the woman said perkily.

Dan smiled to himself and began to rattle off the required info the receptionist needed before heading into the recount center to help Amy set up and begin getting a hold of the ballots. From what he remembered, Jonah and Richard were due to arrive at any moment and then the real fun would begin.

* * *

 

Of course, the real fun was working with Amy again. Actually working with her, not the stuff they had been doing for the past three years.

He got to see her eyes gleam with triumph and her mouth curl into a snarl when the O’Brien recount team was trying to pull one over on them.

Jonah and Richard showed up exactly when he knew they would and he got to barking orders at the both of them before Richard could say something to help the O’Brien camp like last time.

He bypassed all of the bullshit that had occurred the first day they were there such as Jonah pouting about being Richard’s assistant and shutting down that smiling receptionist fuck who had subbed and sucked for Sue way back when she had botched the word ‘robust’ for trying to be helpful.

He had told Richard exactly what Richard had told him all of those years ago about the ballots being thrown away in that buttfuck county. Thankfully, Richard seemed happy to go knock on doors and continue telling Jonah what to do and Dan was glad that they wouldn’t have to deal with them, at least until the next day when they had the meeting with Buddy-Tiny-Dick-Calhoun.

Dan couldn’t decide if he was looking forward to it or not.

What he had forgotten about in the past three years was how good it felt to be actually doing something again. TV had been fun and starting the consulting firm had been great, but there was just something about fighting for a candidate with Amy beside him that just felt so fucking amazing.

More importantly, it felt right.

He felt the success slip into his veins as they told people what to do. He grinned in victory when he joined in on fighting for a vote with Amy. He shared eyerolls with Amy when the O’Brien team thought they had won a ballot, before he stepped in. It made him feel power hungry the way working on TV had never made him feel. Sure, he was able to flaunt his looks and sleep with as many women as possible, but there was just something about political power that made his insides tingle and when that political power was achieved with Amy, well, it made other parts of him tingle as well.

He was tempted to try and seduce her right there in the office and see what happened, but instead, he settled for giving her meaningful looks and triumphant toothy grins when they got another ballot for Team Meyer.

His favorite was when her face pinched up in annoyance when she realized that he had put together all of the necessary information and gotten it to the lawyers a day earlier than he had said. It helped that he knew who to talk to and what they needed to get the ball rolling faster.

At the end of the day, Amy came over to him with pursed lips and folded arms. “Selina loved the idea of hiring the Secretary of State.”

He simpered at her, put his hands behind his head, and leaned back in his chair. “We did well today.”

“Yeah, getting fired must be good for you. It’s like you’ve just bounced right into taking over the world one demand and command at a time.” she said sardonically.

He laughed, “angry that you lost the bet?”

“Hardly. I already know how a date with you will go.”

“With you begging for me to take your underwear off with my teeth?”

She gave him a disgusted look, but it didn’t go unnoticed by him that she had a glimmer in her eye.

“Dream the fuck on, Dan. You’ll just end up ditching me for whatever piece of ass you can trick into going down on you.”

“Ames, come on. You should know by now that I don’t have to trick anyone. I’m just my usual charming self.”

She snorted and leaned against the desk that was in front of him. He watched as she licked her lips.

“I shouldn’t say this because it’ll inflate your head twice the size it is already, but you did really well today. I think that...I think that...well, you just did good.” she stuttered out blushing a bit and Dan grinned in response because she was so damn cute when she had no idea how to articulate a compliment, especially to him.

“Thanks.” he said leaving out the caustic comment that was already forming on the tip of his tongue. If he wanted his plan to go smoothly, he was going to have to hold back a bit, something that was a bit weird to do with Amy since he never held back with her.

They fell into silence and the hustle and bustle continued around them as they kept their eyes trained on each other.

Finally, Amy pushed off the desk and ran a tired hand through her hair. “I think I’ll head back to the hotel. We’ve done enough today, thanks to you.” she gave him a slight smile and Dan returned it feeling a balloon of pride swell in his chest.

It had been the first time in what felt like years - and probably was - where Amy offered him a smile for a job well done.

He didn’t think he’d gotten that since...well, probably since three years ago when they were working on the recount the first time. At least, he couldn’t remember sharing a grin with her in recent years.

Maybe when they had surprised her with Selina running for president again, but he thought she looked more uncomfortable than happy. He realized that maybe she had been uncomfortable because she already knew about the pregnancy. His stomach flipped at that, but he pushed it away quickly before it could stick in his brain.

“I’ll come too.” he said quickly because he needed to make sure that everything went according to plan.

Amy nodded, “I’ll tell Jonah and Richard.”

“Great. I’ll pick somewhere to eat.”

“What? Why?”

He rolled his eyes and began to move his hand away from his head and toward the pocket where his phone sat. “Because we need to eat, Ames. What do you feel like?”

She shrugged pulling her own phone out, “whatever. I don’t care.”

He eyed her as she brought the phone to her ear, but as he listened to her scold Jonah on the other end, he began to look through Yelp for something to eat near their hotel.

He couldn’t remember where they had eaten the last time they were in town, but he figured everything in Carson City probably tasted like dog food wrapped up in plastic and sold to be tasty.

“Whatever Jonah. Selina wants Richard to be heading -- No! Fucking gross. We’ll see you tomorrow.” she snarled hanging the phone up and turning back to him.

“Are you ready?”

He nodded and they headed toward the door to drive to the hotel.

* * *

 

When they pulled into the parking lot, he told Amy that he’d take care of the reservations while she looked at the menu in the restaurant -- she didn’t want to leave the premise citing exhaustion, but he had a feeling that wasn’t it.

He waited in the line at reception and hoped that Amy didn’t get bored in the restaurant, so he could make sure his plan was going to work out.

Finally, the woman waved him over looking a bit more irritated than he figured was warranted.

“Do you have a reservation?” she snipped.

“Yeah. It’s one of the rooms under Crawford.” he said using the code name that had been booked in the hotel. While the nation was watching what was going on in Carson City, no one wanted the press to know where they were all staying. Unsurprisingly, Gary had chose Crawford, after one of his favorite actresses.

The woman nodded, “right. There are four rooms. How many keys do you want?”

“No. There should be three rooms. One person cancelled.” Dan said quickly and then chanced a glance at Amy who was standing with their suitcases at the mouth of the restaurant browsing through the menu.

“Okay...sorry about that. How many of the rooms are you checking in for?” she asked.

“Just one.” Dan said still looking at Amy.

The woman nodded, “okay, do you want one or two keys?”

“Two.”

“Great.” the woman said sliding the keys toward Dan.

He smiled back and then pocketed the keys before he signed the required paperwork she slide in front of him. He made sure to get the receipt - the interns dealt with all of the hotel bookings and tracking the funds - before heading back to Amy.

“I’m thinking a Caesar salad. What do you want?” she asked handing the menu to him.

“No surprise there.” he muttered taking the menu with one hand and then handing her a key with the other.

She looked down at it and frowned, “what’s the room number?”

He paused wondering what the best way of telling would be. “So...about that. Apparently, one of the interns fucked up on the reservation.” he said giving her a rueful look that he hoped looked convincing.

She narrowed her eyes at him and her fist tightened around the key card. “What the fuck?”

“Yeah, I don’t know. I tried arguing with her, but they are full because of the recount.” he said shrugging and moving to take his suitcase. “So, should we--”

“What? Why didn’t you argue with her?” Amy snapped shrilly.

He gave her an impatient look, “Ames, I just told you that I did. Besides, it’s late. I’m tired. I’m hungry. I don’t--”

“Listen, I’m not going to sleep in the same room as you.” Amy declared and he wondered if she was going to poke him in the chest to make her point. She looked damn near ready to.

He raised an eyebrow, “Are you afraid something is going to happen?”

“Why aren’t you more upset about this?” she demanded ignoring his question.

He hoped that his voice conveyed innocence as he replied, “because it’s not the end of the world. I mean we’re just _sleeping_.”

“No, Dan, _no_. We’re not doing this.” she snapped taking the key from his hand and then stomping over to the reception desk.

Dan abandoned their stuff and hurried after her hoping that the receptionist wasn’t going to give in to Amy.

“Excuse me, we need _two_ rooms.” Amy said slapping the keys on the counter and glaring at the woman.

The receptionist looked startled and then glanced behind Amy at Dan with raised eyebrows. “Well, I told your...coworker that we had four rooms for the Crawford party, but someone this--”

“I think what she means to say is that the reservation was wrongly made, _right_?” Dan said casting the receptionist an annoyed look.

The woman frowned at him and then turned back to Amy, but before the woman could say something, Amy began to speak.

“We need four rooms. One for each of the...people in the Crawford party.” Amy demanded.

The woman bristled a little and then looked over at Dan with an accusatory look.

“Ma’am, as I told your partner--”

“He’s my coworker.”

“Regardless, we had you under fo--”

“Three reservations, that’s what the mistake was. Listen, Ames, it’s not a huge deal. I’m sure there are two beds in the room.” Dan said quickly cutting the woman off.

“I want my own fucking room, Dan.” Amy snarled glancing at him before turning back to the woman.

“If you only have three rooms, then give me the second one and Jonah and Richard can just share. Fuck knows they are basically butt buddies anyway.” Amy said rolling her eyes.

“Wait -- that’s not --” Dan began, but this time the woman cut him off.

“There’s no need for that. We can get you another--”

“Big J in the house!” Jonah announced coming over to them and giving them all a large goofy grin as Richard trailing behind.

Amy and Dan looked at Richard with his matching smile and Jonah who was already looking at the receptionist with interest.

“Did you check us in?” Jonah asked leaning against the counter and smiling in what he thought was a seductive way at the woman.

Dan watched her roll her eyes and heard her mutter something under her breath, which he normally would have laughed at, but she was seriously fucking up his plan.

“No. We’re having difficulties because one of the interns fucked up.” Amy seethed.

“There’s only three rooms.” Dan said glaring pointedly at the woman who was typing on the computer and ignoring them.

“Actually--”

“Amy can just stay with me.” Dan said moving half an inch closer to Amy knowing that he was crowding her space. He looked down at her with innocent eyes, hoping that he was giving off faultless vibes and that he wasn’t thinking of anything except sleeping.

She rolled her eyes, “no! I will not be sleeping in the same room as you. I’ll just take one of the other rooms and Jonah and Richard can--”

“Hold the fuck up. Richard and I are not sharing a room together. What if I meet some hot babes in Carson City?” Jonah asked continuing to eye the woman at reception.

Amy shook her head, “you’re not meeting anyone in fucking Carson City because _it’s Carson City_. Share with Richard, Jonah, and I’ll take one of the rooms.”

“No.” Jonah said petulantly.

Dan could practically see smoke rising out of Amy’s head and tugged on her arm hoping that she would calm down and just drop it.

He was starting to feel a big panicky that his plan was going to implode in his face, especially with fucking Sophie arriving tomorrow with the suitcase, which was a whole other bushy beaver box he was going to have to contend with. However, if he got Amy to just sleep in his room on the first night, then it wouldn’t be as difficult to brush off the sister tomorrow, particularly if Amy would give in to him tonight.

“Come on, Ames. Just sleep in my room.” he said trying to keep the whining that was creeping into his voice to a minimum.

He resisted letting one of his nervous twitches creep to the surface and instead, tightened his hold on his cell phone and grabbed Amy’s arm again resisting dragging her toward the elevators on the other side of the lobby.

Only from his time working on television, did his hands stay clammy-free or else he’d be leaving sweat marks all over Amy’s blazer. He tugged on her arm again to try to get her to see reason, but she shrugged him off with a snarl.

Why wasn’t she making this easier?

“Fuck no! I want to know who the fuck messed up this goddamn reservation. There were supposed to be _four_ rooms.” she snarled so loudly that the few people in the lobby turned to look at them.

Dan cleared his throat and took a step toward Amy so that now he was hovering so close to her, if he tilted his head just right he’d get a clear image down her blouse. He shook his head and tried to focus on the task, “You need to chill the fuck out. Let’s just leave the receptionist to do her fucking job and head up to the room. It’s not a huge deal.”

She glared at him and then turned back to the receptionist, “can I speak to the manager?”

Dan groaned and ran a hand through his hair. The feeling of panic reached an all time high and he began to think of what he could say if Amy were to call him out on cancelling one of the rooms.

“Hey, Amy, if you don’t want to share with Dan, you can always sleep in my bed.” Jonah said giving her a lecherous smile.

“I’d rather shove glass up my vagina, Jonah.” she said dully.

“Ma’am, we can easily solve this situation. There’s an--” the woman began to say.

“Yes, you hear that, Amy. They can easily solve the situation by giving us free breakfast or something.” he said putting an arm around her shoulders and carefully trying to guide her away.

“What? Free fucking breakfast? The breakfast is already free. Besides, who wants to eat a piece of dry toast and some cold eggs?” Amy bite out through clenched teeth.

She ducked out of Dan’s reach and leaned on the reception desk to make sure the woman knew she meant business. Dan groaned and rolled his eyes so hard because he knew exactly what was coming, Amy was about to rant and there was nothing he could do about it. Now, the woman was definitely going to tell her the truth.

“Listen, I know it’s like really hard to stand there and deal with people all day and just type on the fucking computer, which you can’t even seem to do correctly, but we’re trying to save the American democracy, so it would be really nice if you could remove whatever keycard that’s been shoved up your customer service obeying ass and do your fucking job. I know that entrepreneur shit might seem like the end all and be all, but we work for the government and we need to fix this fucked up state’s voting policies since the higher ups in this cousin fucking county weren’t able to do it themselves. So I’m asking you to find me a new room, fucking please.” Amy ranted pushing her finger repeatedly into the counter to make a point.

He sighed heavily in annoyance as she ended and reached for her arm again hoping that the woman wasn’t going to give in to Amy after that long babbling insult and call him out on his bullshit, but when the woman spoke, he was left feeling surprised.

She gave Amy a tight lipped smile, “sorry, ma’am, but that’s all we can do for you.”

Amy growled lowly and Dan took that as her opportunity to twirl her around to begin pulling her back to their suitcases. She resisted at first, but as they got back to the small corner where their items rested and Jonah and Richard hung behind to get their own keycards, she stopped struggling.

Instead, she gathered her things and headed to the elevator without another word. Dan smirked to himself at this victory - that should’ve been small, but Amy always was stubborn - and made a conscious decision to not look at the receptionist since she was probably pissed as fuck.

But fuck if he cared, he got Amy exactly where he wanted her. Now, he had to move on to the next phase before she figured out exactly what he was doing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What happens when Dan and Amy have to share the same room? Is Dan stuck three years in the past? Will Amy find out he's planning something? Will Jonah ever get with the receptionist? Find out next time!


	3. Misfortunate Longing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amy and Dan share a hotel room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone so much for reviewing/liking/reading the story. I'm so glad you guys are liking this story! It's been so fun to write. I wrote this a few weeks ago, but I wasn't super happy with it, so I've spent a lot of time tweaking it and trying to decide if this is the direction I wanted to go in. I hope you guys like it! And please let me know what you think!

Dan watched as Amy tensed up more and more with each step they took toward the hotel room. He found the entire scenario amusing as hell. He would never understand how she didn’t pop with unresolved restlessness. He had seen her a lot of different ways, but uncomfortable because they were going to share the same hotel room was a completely new side of her. 

At least that’s what he thought. 

Sure, maybe she had seemed nervous when they had talked about her keeping the baby when they were in that shitty hotel room in Iowa and he had rubbed fucking Mike’s boss in front of her...but that was different.

And maybe when they had been in Nevada the last time she had acted shy and unsure of herself when they had a moment in the hallway. However, her acting uncomfortable because they were going to share a room together was an all new situation for Dan.

He wasn’t sure if he liked it, but he didn’t necessarily hate it.

It was just weird to see Amy seem so...out of her element.

Whenever he was around Amy, she was always so sure of herself, until it came to her personal life or feelings...or really anything that wasn’t work related.

He thought that he was pretty good at covering up any discomfort he may have with portraying human emotions, but Amy...well, Amy was just an island unto herself.

Although, if he were to tell her that, he could just hear what she would say.

_Dan, I’m not a sociopath, this is how we, of the human species, act. I feel things. I comfortably rely on human emotions. I don’t have to press a button to pretend to have empathy. I’m not you._

He almost wanted to chuckle at the Amy in his head. She was so adamantly telling him that she did, in fact, feel more than he did when he knew she was just as disillusioned as him. That’s why he figured he liked her more than most people. 

Because she just _got_ it. 

Although, by looking at the current situation, he’d say that all she felt was an undying urge to burst through the nearest window pane and tumble down the six stories to get away from him.

It was new territory and that wasn’t necessarily bad, but it was different. Maybe if he wasn’t orchestrating the entire situation, then he’d feel a bit out of sorts about sharing a room as well. Maybe, if he didn’t already know how this would turn out - by him taking advantage of whatever the night brought him and King Danny - then he’d be worried about how this would affect their relationship.

If he didn’t already know that their relationship could get a lot worse than Amy feeling embarrassed about sleeping with him, then maybe he’d be a bit more hesitant.

As of right now, though, he was just a bit...excited about where Amy was going to put all of that restless energy she was exhibiting.

He hoped that it was directed at him - and that probably said more about him than it should; that he got off so spectacularly at Amy getting pissy and testy and irritated at him.

It really did help that he was controlling the situation, though.

If he wasn’t, this would probably be more awkward, but he knew how it would end and he knew it would be in his favor.

One thing about knowing this version of...events...was that he knew how far he could push her.

He knew Amy had feelings for him, unlike the last time.

That gave him a leg up in the situation.

And he knew how work would go, so he wasn’t as distracted as he would’ve been about whether or not Selina was going to win.

She knew that he’d be okay even if she didn’t win, which lifted the pressure from him.

He also knew that whatever he did couldn’t be worse than fucking Sophie-Salivating-Gland-Brookheimer.

Seriously, though, if he had known Sophie basically would drool all over him whenever they kissed, he would’ve run the other way when she said CBS - because he swore to fuck, he had heard C _B_ S the first time around. 

He was hoping that tonight would in an even bigger win than being on top of his work. He knew there was no other way that tonight would end with anything but sex with Amy - obviously - because they were sharing a hotel room and what else would happen when they were confined to a small area with only one bed? 

Also, he knew once the shit about Selina in his...usual (?) time came to light, Amy wouldn’t touch him for awhile. 

Like a month, which is what he was hoping for, or maybe two years, like she had done with Sophie.

Assuming, he was even going to go back.

His foot hesitated for a split second as he took another step toward the hotel room as that thought sank in.

Was him being here a forever thing?

Was this Groundhog’s Day or Back To The Future - except there was no Dolorian or Doctor Whatever The Fuck or a 1950s diner scene that was tinged in racism or even some cute small American town filled with kookey fuckers. 

This was just reality, sort of. 

Regardless, he was taking advantage of the situation he had created and he was going to continue with his plan to at least see where the chips ended up or whatever the fuck that saying was. 

He wasn’t sure if he was going to be stuck in the past, but he might as well take advantage of it if he was.

Maybe this time, there’d be a more favorable outcome than being ostracized, Selina losing - _again_ , Amy running off to Ne-Va-Dumb, and having to work with Jane McCabe and turn a distressing shade of orange...   

As they approached the door of the hotel, he watched as Amy’s shoulders rose - if possible - higher inch-by-inch until they were right under her ears.

His hands were itching to reach forward, push them back down, and kiss his way up her neck to that spot she enjoyed to help her relax. He’d leave hot, opened-mouthed hickeys across the smooth skin to mark her as his because he doubted the repercussions of that action would outweigh the satisfaction he would feel at seeing Amy’s skin marred by his mouth. 

“You seem tense.” he stated unnecessarily as she fumbled with one of the keys they had been given.

She glanced over her shoulder at him and gave him what he assumed was her best attempt of a glare in her current state. “I’m fine.” she snipped and then took the final two steps toward the door as if she were being walked to her death sentence before jamming the key in the hotel door.

He watched in amusement as she tried the door once again when it didn’t open and as she did it a third time, his mind flashed to the last time she had floundered so beautifully with a hotel key. 

When the third time didn’t work, he moved forward, crowded her space until there was little to no room between them and then hooked his arm around her to pluck the key from her grasp. If he was also boxing her in, then that was okay too. 

“I think you need to relax.” he said huskily sliding the key steadily into the lock and then slowly taking it out. 

He would admit to showing off a little bit.

She tilted her head up at him and gave him that look that had almost sealed the deal the last time they were in Nevada. 

A look he had seen one other time when they had been drunk - probably less so than either of them would admit - on tequila after he’d been fired from CBS and the night that had led them down their...down into a black hole of adulthood and reality that he had never planned on going down.

Ever.

He liked that look because he knew that she would agree to anything that he would propose. He could ask her to murder Mike with him or concoct an assinssination attempt on Jonah and...he knew she’d back him up.

But he also maybe disliked that look, just the tiniest bit, because it had gotten them to where they were now - barely talking and him in some weirdo deja vu Nightmare Before Christmas tale - or wait was it a Christmas Story? No, it was a Christmas _Carol_.

Fucking feel good Christmas movies.

What was happening to his mind?

Didn’t matter one way or another, he was in some fucked up reality where he was three years in the past and that look Amy was giving him was doing something weird to his chest and unlike the first time, they were all alone and her sister...her sister wasn’t due to arrive until tomorrow, which meant they had all night to...do exactly what he wanted to do to her.

But first he had to get her to agree to it.

“Don’t look so smug.” she muttered with a twinkle in her eye and he wondered where all of the tension had gone when she had been as tight as a coil ready to burst only moments ago.

He chuckled, “I can’t help it if I’m better at working doors than you.” 

She rolled her eyes, but a slight smirk settled on her lips, so he knew that she wasn’t upset anymore, if she had even been to begin with.

They entered the room with their suitcases dragging behind them and then they stood in the small hallway leading into the room for a few minutes too long.

Correction, Amy stood unsure of herself in the doorway, while he planted his suitcase right next to the bed near the window.

He wouldn’t admit to it, but he was a bit disappointed that there were two beds and they weren’t going to have an argument over who got to sleep where, which would, of course, end up with them sleeping beside one another. 

Instead, there were two beds and they each got one, but that didn’t mean he was going to make it any easier or more comfortable for her.

Watching Amy squirm at having to be alone with him was something that he liked a bit more than he thought he would.

Sure, Amy being pissed or power-hungry or excited about a political win were some of his favorite looks on her, but seeing her entire usual demeanor unsettled by the mere fact they were going to be sleeping right next to each other because he had orchestrated the entire thing was...a turn on to put it mildly. 

She was acting so out of character because of _him_.

Not anyone else. 

Although, his favorite look on her was when she did something that was pure Machiviallian that it just...it was really something to see pure power, hunger, and glee on a face that was so beautifully innocent that really made King Danny want to stand at attention. 

But he digressed.

Clearing his throat, he pushed away any thoughts of Amy doing things that would put his own actions to shame and instead, focused on the current deer-caught-in-the-headlights look on her face as she took in the room.

“Don’t worry. I won’t make you sleep in the same bed as me, unless you want to, of course.” he said giving her a charming smile.

She rolled her eyes, “just stay on that side of the room.”

“Okay, but when I change, you can’t look. Not even a peak.” he said watching as she turned a bright shade of crimson and then glowered at him.

“Fuck you. I’m going to take a shower.” she snarled pushing her suitcase onto the floor and then digging roughly through the items until she found her toiletries and a pair of what he assumed were pajamas.

“Wait! What about getting something to eat?” he whined because he was hungry and he knew Amy was too, even if she wouldn’t admit it.

“Figure it out yourself.” she exclaimed before opening the bathroom door and slamming it shut loud enough to make Dan wince slightly. He smiled to himself for a minute as he thought about his next move and then he picked up the phone to call downstairs for room service. He made sure to charge Jonah’s room. 

* * *

 

“What’s this?” Amy asked as she came out fully dressed - much to Dan’s chagrin - in a Penn t-shirt and a pair of shorts while toweling her hair.

A weird dipping sensation occurred in his stomach as his mind went back to the last time he saw Amy in a Penn t-shirt such as the one she had on and an equally cozy and short pair of PJ bottoms. 

But as quickly as that thought had drifted into his mind, he pushed it away because he had no time to deal with any lingering feels he may have had over a situation he never wanted to be in, in the first place.

“It’s food.” he answered gesturing to the plate of salad and two hamburgers he had gotten for them. He knew that Amy loved French fries, but she was so dogged when it came to her weight that he knew she’d prefer a salad. 

Also, she had mentioned a Caesar salad and he figured he should at least partially get something she wanted, even if he knew she could do with a burger. 

“Why is it here?” she asked picking up the bun off the hamburger as if it were a disgusting animal and tried to conceal a look of hunger that crossed her face.

“Because I’m hungry.” he said simply before taking some of the salad from the plate and putting it on his.

She put the bun back down and then went back to the discarded towel she had placed on the chair to pick up the item of food. She stood there for a moment, seemingly unsure of herself, before walking away from the food and going back into the bathroom.

He took a bite of his hamburger and chewed as he waited for her to come back into the room. A few minutes later she came back carrying the clothes she had been wearing and a comb. He watched as she put her clothes carefully onto her bed and then began to comb her hair, yanking the hair through the teeth much more aggressively than he figured hair should be cared for.

“Are you going to join me?” he asked before taking another bite of the burger.

She walked over to the mirror and continued to comb her hair, but a bit more gently he noted. 

“Eventually.” she responded. 

He wiped his mouth with one of the napkins room service had sent up with the food. He stood up then and advanced toward her.

As he got nearer, he debated wrapping his arms around her waist and bringing her into him, but he resisted as he passed her by and headed to the bathroom. 

Closing the door, he listened as she walked around the room and then it went silent, which meant that she was probably sitting and eating. 

Smirking to himself, he began to get ready for his own shower, until he realized - perhaps on purpose - he had forgotten his toiletries out there in his suitcase. Fixing his face, so she wouldn’t know that he was feeling any joy about this. He wrapped the small, white towel around his waist and left the bathroom.

“Did they send up - fucking hell! Dan! What are you doing? Why aren’t you wearing any clothes?” Amy asked and he wasn’t sure if he was pleased or not to hear a hint of panic in her voice.

“I forgot my shampoo.” he said simply walking over to his discarded suitcase. He made sure to turn away from her to hide the smirk that had come to his lips at her look of shock.

Slowly, he began to rifle through his suitcase to find his toiletries. He felt her eyes resting on his backside and he couldn’t help the rush of power he felt at knowing that he had her exactly where he wanted her.

She cleared her throat loudly, “are you going to be like this the entire time we’re in here?”

“Like what?” he asked innocently standing up and turning to look at her fully. He straightened his posture a bit to make sure that she got the full effect of him and he attempted to keep an innocent look on his face.

“Like this.” she waved her hand over his body without meeting his eyes or looking at him at all. 

He felt glee flow through him as he noticed that she was having trouble focusing on him and instead, chose to focus on his suitcase.

If he had known this was how she was going to act if they ever shared a room together, then he would’ve done it a lot sooner.

“Am I distracting you, Ames?” he asked giving her a sugary-sweet grin.

He watched as she shifted in the seat near the table with her still untouched burger before her. 

“No. Of course, not.” she said shrilly.

His grin widened, “no, of course not.” he repeated.

She brought her eyes up to meet his and he tried to keep those blue orbs trapped in his brown ones.

The room felt electrofied and he wondered why he hadn’t done this years before - before Amy could barely be around him and their lives had drifted from one another like two pieces of plastic in the ocean. 

If he had made a move before - if he had tried...would things have been different? Would any of it even matter? He always knew that Amy was too smart to be seduced by him, but...what if? What if he had tried? What then? 

Where would he be now?

Where would _they_ be now?

He scoffed at those thoughts and chose to ignore them because none of it really mattered when the things he had done had already come to pass and Amy - Amy would be okay with whatever her future held. 

She never needed him to save her, even when he had told himself that she did, like when it came to getting her out of the hospital when her Dad had that not-actually-a-stroke years back or when she needed his help getting rid of Richard. Then there was the time he had come swooping in with a job offer after she had quit as campaign manager for Selina. Not to mention the many times that she had gotten herself into a work situation and needed him to get out of it. He was never going to be Amy’s White Knight and she knew that...right?

But after the whole pregnancy and the abortion-that-he-never-cared about...he thought that maybe...maybe...did she still know that he would never change?

Because there was a moment...a moment when she had tried to talk him into settling down...together and it was something that...Amy knew he wasn’t a good person, so he always wondered why she liked him despite that.

He had blocked her out and shoved in her face he was exactly who he had always been - someone she had always known: a sociopathic lothario. Even if he had tried to downplay it in the years before, when they were younger, he had never hidden who he really was from her. He never needed to before because she got him and liked him just the way he was. 

She was probably the only person he knew that liked him despite his...eccentricities. 

Suddenly, looking into her eyes, he felt unsure of himself. 

Why did she even like him?

While she didn’t know the whole scheme of their history, he did. He knew how they were and...and Amy still thought of them as friends, as coworkers, as Machiavellian conspiracists. 

But they weren’t that anymore...they were...they were more and they were less.

They continued to be undefinable. 

He knew Amy was someone he could rely on, he could trust her, he...cared about her on some level. He liked her above anyone else he’d ever met... 

But it wasn’t like he _loved_ her or anything. He just liked her more than anyone else. 

That was it.

And he had figured that was all for her too, until he saw the look in her eyes when their gazes met in that electrified hotel room.

Like she was looking for...more, just like years from now when she sought him out in the hotel to discuss their options…

She wanted more and he wasn’t sure if he was willing to give it. 

He couldn’t look away from her eyes and as the many thoughts of their past, present, and future began to fill his head, he suddenly felt a little lightheaded and very uncomfortable. The small organ in his body that some might call a heart twisted in a weird way and his breathing became shallow as he began to identify a longing in Amy’s cerulean orbs. 

It wasn’t a surprising look, but it was so pure and open...it wasn’t something he was used to on her face.

Especially after the abortion and if he was being honest, before it too. He hadn’t really seen her be open since...probably when they were in Nevada the first time. He had seen it briefly the night they had fucked and she got pregnant, but Amy had been a closed book to him for years now and that made him feel uncomfortable with the realization. 

Even in the future when they...she seemed to be holding back...but now it was like...like everything was out in the open, even though she hadn’t said anything.

There was more than longing in them, but also a need...a desire that she...she wanted him.

And only him.

Unable to process what he was doing, he dropped the shower items on the bed and advanced toward her, his body going on autopilot. As he took each step forward, he felt his confidence and machismo leave him. In their place, came hesitation and yearning. He stopped right in front of her and she gazed up at him with wide, expression-filled eyes.

Dan didn’t know what to do with it, but he knew that he wanted to erase that look of vulnerability from her and replace it with the Amy he knew.

He could see hesitation in her orbs as well and there was something else...something that eluded him; something he couldn’t put a name to.

Maybe he just didn’t want to put a name to it.

The air around they had shifted and now it wasn’t just Amy who was uncomfortable anymore. He wasn’t sure what had caused the shift - maybe the vulnerability in Amy’s eyes or maybe it was something else entirely. 

Maybe it was just him coming to terms with...everything that had happened between them in the last few years. 

Perhaps, he had finally succumbed to human emotions after all. 

Or, more likely, he had fucking lost his mind.

“Why are you doing this?” she rasped and the tone was so raw that it tightened something within him.

“Do you want me to stop?” he asked quietly and the last word sounded much too unsure to his own ears.

Where had his bravado gone? 

Instead of answering, Amy stood up and with her two index fingers she pushed him back so they were a few inches apart. She stared up at him defiantly and he gazed down at her. 

He wanted to consume her, forget about all of the other things that plagued their relationship and just make the longing in the pit of his stomach cease.

The longing that had been nagging at him for months now, since the last time they had been together.

A longing he most definitely attempted to ignore. 

On the good days, he was successful and on the bad ones, he looked for something else to fill the void - or someone else more specifically.

He watched as she leaned toward him and as the breath skimmed over his skin, she gave him a wicked smile.

“Go take a shower.” 

Something in his facial expression must’ve made her happy because that wicked grin widened and she sat back down in her chair in front of the hamburger and the salad he had ordered for them.

“You’re such a tease, Brookheimer.” he stated because he was feeling uncomfortably unstable with how quickly she had gone from turned on to amused by him - and not in a way he normally liked.

She gave him a saccharine look and then reached for her burger. “Just because we have to share a room together doesn’t mean that I’m going to be warming your bed instead of whatever bumfuck Vegas ripoff stripper you’ve seduced into making you cum.”

Dan laughed and reached out a hand to wipe the ketchup that had gotten on her cheek. He licked his finger and he watched with unconcealed glee as her eyes followed his movement.

“Don’t worry, Ames. I’ll wait until you’re asleep before bringing the parade of Vegas knockoffs into the hotel room. Remember, though, to wear earplugs.” he smirked at her as she scowled and then he turned around to head to the bathroom.

He made sure to walk slowly and not close the door the entire way before heading in to take his shower. 

He heard her let out a frustrated sound and he smiled to himself knowing that even if she hadn’t wanted to give in, he knew he had planted the idea in her head.

As he got into the shower, he felt a little more of his usual bluster come back. Doing something as menial as cleansing his face with his facial scrub, allowed him to relax and feel more on even ground. Getting away from the emotions in Amy’s eyes helped in that regard as well. His head finally felt a little clearer. His legs felt a bit more stable. His heart had settled back into a normal rhythm instead of bouncing from his chest to his stomach like a basketball.

Going through his usual shower routine, he began to think about his next move. He knew that she would give in eventually, but for whatever reason, she was holding out longer than he had thought she would. But that was okay because he never minded working a little extra harder if he knew that it got him Amy’s attention in the end. 

Sure, it had been awhile since he had actually had to work for it, but if there was one person he knew inside and out and it was Amy. 

So if he had to wait a little longer, that was okay.

He knew the pay off would be worth it, especially when he knew the alternative - fucking Sophie again - would be such a wilted time waster.

He’d journeyed down that road twice now and it wasn’t fulfilling either time. In fact, it left him feeling a bit gross if he was honest. 

As he showered, he thought of ways that he could get Amy to just give in to him. He wasn’t sure how long he had in this place, so he wanted to make the most of it. At least, he knew what was going to happen next and that Sophie’s impending arrival tomorrow would be handled.

He hadn’t completely decided how he was going to get rid of Sophie, but he knew that it was going to be fun regardless of what happened.

When he had finished rinsing himself off, he grabbed the fluffy white hotel towel and wrapped it around his waist. Exiting the bathroom, he was happy to find that Amy hadn’t moved very much in the last twenty minutes. She had finished her burger, eaten part of the salad, and was reading something on her phone.

“It looks like tomorrow is going to be a -- Dan! Is it so difficult for you to put on clothes?” she asked glancing up at him and then quickly away.

He laughed in response and went over to his suitcase to pull out his sleepwear. “Ames, it’s not like you haven’t seen it before.” 

“And I had plans to never see it again.” 

“Don’t lie. I know what you’re thinking.” 

She scoffed, “do you?” 

“Yeah, you forget that I know you, Ames.”

She made a big to do about dismissing his claims, but he noticed that she didn’t respond. As he finished pulling his shirt over his head, he walked over to the little table and to his burger that was a little colder than he wanted. Taking a large bite, he watched as Amy went back to reading what she had been looking at on her phone.

“What are you reading?” he asked after chewing the bite he had taken and swallowing.

“Politico.” she said shortly.

“Hmph.” he muttered taking a bite of salad.

“You seem pretty relaxed about this whole thing.” she said pushing her phone away and looking up at him with suspicious eyes.

“Yeah, well, I mean…” he took a bite of salad and didn’t elaborate.

Her eyes narrowed, “You’ve been acting weirdly these past few days.”

“Have I?” he asked innocently.

“Yeah...it’s like you’ve...it’s like you’ve gotten rid of...you just seem different.” she said picking up her fork and taking a bite of her salad.

He shrugged, “maybe I’ve realized that we’re going to win.”

She let out a chortle, “are we? And you got this from what? Reading your GQ horoscope?”

“First of all, GQ doesn’t do that bullshit and second, it’s all about Men’s Health. GQ is so 2017.” Dan said rolling his eyes and picking up his burger.

He hadn’t realized what he said until Amy exclaimed, “Dan! It’s 2016! Why are you being such a fucking weirdo?”

He coughed on his bite of burger and tried to quickly think of something to say, “what?” he managed feeling dumb.

She was staring at him hard now, her burger all but forgotten. “What’s up with you? First, you act all nonchalant about the count to the point where you bet on it, which I’ve never seen you do unless you know you’re  going to win. Second, you seem to obtain some secret genius bullshit radar. You act like this is normal - us sharing a room. Then you ask me out--”

“What does one of these have to do with the other?” he asked leaning back in his chair and trying to look bored by the conversation.

Inside, his stomach was doing flips and his heart was clenching in anxiety. Thank God for his two years doing TV or else he would be sweating bullets like he used to at her increased suspicions and just general uncomfortable situations.

“Nothing, I’m just saying that--”

“You seem to be implying that my good mood is weird.”

“Because it is! Normally, you’d be freaking out by now! Or--”

“Maybe I’ve changed.”

“ _That’s_ your excuse?” 

“What do you want me to do?”

“Act like you! Don’t act like this...pampered and bleached asshole who takes everything with stride. Where was the Dan who freaks out when things start to get a little messy? It’s just like...it’s like you’re acting like none of this matters when it all does.” she exclaimed heatedly.

He opened his mouth and then closed it.

“You’re just acting weird and maybe I never realized it before, but maybe I liked the old you better. I could count on him to act, like, well, a normal fucking...sociopathic piece of shit.” she added staring at him.

He frowned, “I don’t think I’ve been acting any differently.”

“It’s the small things…” she muttered looking away.

His frown deepened and he wanted to reach over and tilt her face toward his, so he could see her eyes. If he could see her eyes, then he could figure out what she was thinking, but he knew better than to touch her.

“Is this about me not freaking out because we are sharing a bed?” he asked finally.

“We’re sleeping in the same room, not the same bed.” she countered.

“Still. Is it?”

“It’s not about anything. You just seem like nothing bothers you and like all of this is normal or something...it’s weird. You’re just too nonchalant.”

“How should I be acting, Amy? I’m trying to keep a united front so everyone knows that we will win. Gotta spin it to win it, baby.”

Amy crinkled her nose at him, “what the fuck does that mean?”

“Just that it’s not a huge deal what happens. We’ll still have jobs. You and I can--”

“Are you already planning on not working for Selina anymore? Do you think she’s going to lose? Is that why you’re acting like none of this matters? Is this like when you wanted to run off to Danny Chung all over again?”

“I’m not - I’m not acting like none of this matters.” he defended.

“Yes, you are. You’re walking around here like you own the place. Like you’re in on some big secret that we’re all missing out on. You’re taking risks--”

“What risks?”

“The bet! Asking me out! That’s not like you. We don’t ask each other out. I don’t even like you 90 percent of the time.”

He blinked rapidly at her accusation and then he got up and walked over to the hotel bed that he had claimed as his own.   
“You’re saying that I’m acting weird because I asked you out?” he said slowly.

“Yes. Why now? Why are you doing this now? We both agreed that what we had was...nothing. We didn’t work the first time, so why are you trying to do this again?”

He stared at her not knowing what to say, but thankfully, he was saved by her phone going off. He could tell it was Selina on the other line because of how tense she became, so he grabbed his own phone and began to pretend he was doing something to avoid having to deal with the conversation they had just had. 

He wasn’t sure where any of it had come from. He was acting the same as he always had. Wasn’t he? Sure, maybe he wasn’t as invested as usual, but that was just because he knew what was going to happen. Should he be acting more like...like what? More aggressive? More worried? More like an asshole? 

It wasn’t like he could change history, right? By not freaking out about every little detail and not allowing things to happen the way they had before would he change something?

 He wanted to ask her if she wanted him to sleep with her sister or for them to get fucked by Bob-The-Senial-Fucker?

But she didn’t know any of that, not yet at least.

Not if he could help it either.

Or should he just let everything play out like it should’ve the first time? Should he even be meddling with the past? Was this a thing he had to worry about, too? 

Fucking time travel.

What the fuck. 

When Amy got off the phone, she let out a long suffering sigh and then got up from the chair she had curled herself into.

“What does Selina want?” he asked tentatively looking over at her from the top of his screen.

“The usual. Heads on a silver platter and results that make her want to orgasam.” Amy shuttered and Dan assumed that was Selina’s word choice and not hers.

“Right.” he muttered his own mind going to Selina’ cum face, but he quickly banished that because it was weird and creepy - like seeing your mother and father fucking after 25 years of marriage.

There were just wrinkles and rolls in all the wrong places.

“Let’s just go to sleep, so we can hit the ground running tomorrow. We’ll need all of your genuis to take down fucking O’Brien and, of course, I need to be on the top of my game to make sure that she sees...I mean, we just need to win, okay?” Amy muttered.

“Hm...yeah.” he said absent mindedly wondering if he should tell her they really needed to look out for Montez, but one slip up tonight was probably enough. Also, he hadn’t gotten a chance to seduce her into sleeping in one bed. What the fuck had happened to his plan? Was King Danny going to have to go to bed without an attention?

“Are we going to cuddle?” he asked watching as she went over to her own bed. He wasn’t going to give up so easily, especially after their weird tension-filled encounter earlier. He had planned to take advantage of this situation and she was making it more and more difficult.

She laughed darkly and looked at him over her shoulder. “In your fucking dreams, Dan.” 

He grinned at her and without warning wandered over to where she was standing. As they stood in front of each other, the same electricity seemed to settle in the room and without thinking what he was doing, Dan reached out a hand to rest it on her waist.

She stared at him with wide, blue eyes.

“What are you--?”

“Just go with it.” he muttered and dipped his head down to kiss her gently on the lips. He hadn’t meant to go with a soft kiss, but he hadn’t wanted to scare her away and he figured that starting off slowly would be exactly the way to worm his Machaviallian charms into her heart and mind. 

When he pulled away, Amy had her eyes closed and her lips were just a bit parted. He went to step back, but she pulled him back toward her and kissed him with a ruthlessness that he knew was especially reserved for him. 

When they parted again, both breathing heavily, he made to move toward her once more, but she took a step back and almost fell into the bed behind her. He reached out a hand to steady her and their eyes met. But there was a different emotion than the heady need he had seen earlier, this one was more reserved and uncertain. The shyness and vague surprise from earlier was back. 

She shook his grip off and regarded him through cool eyes that seemed to shutter before under his heated gaze.

“I don’t want to do anything either of us will regret.” she admitted quietly looking away from him and squirming under his gaze.

“Yeah.” he agreed staring at her mouth and only half listening to her.

She rolled her eyes because she probably knew he wasn’t paying attention. “Dan, go sleep in your bed.”

He frowned as the haze finally began to lift and he realized slowly that what he had been planning all night was slipping through his fingers, like a vote that was so close to their grasp, but the last congressmember had decided to vote no. 

“Ames…” he trailed off and tried to convey what he wanted to say into the nickname.

She raised her eyebrows and looked up at him with suspicious eyes, “this is what I’m talking about.”

He looked over her shoulder and the back down to meet her eyes. She was staring at him hard. 

“What about cuddling?” he gave her a pout and she laughed genuinely, which made a warmth spread in his chest.

“You and I both know we’re not cuddlers.” she stated before turning her back to him and climbing into bed. 

He stared down at her for a long moment before moving to the other side of her bed because he didn’t really care what she said about getting into his bed. He knew that she wouldn’t really mind if they shared the same bed; he knew she sort’ve liked it when he went against her wishes. 

Ignoring her protests, he got in and turned to face her. He watched with half-concealed glee as she struggled to keep a pissed off look on her face and he felt the urge to push her buttons a little further to see how far he could go.

“Get back over there.” she exclaimed.

“Ames, come on, we both know that we’re inevitably--”

“Don’t come on, Ames, me! This isn’t happening.” she said gestuing between them.

He sighed heavily and cuddled into the pillow watching as she watched him through narrowed and annoyed eyes. “I’m tired.”

“Me too.” 

“Okay, then.”

“Okay, then what? You’re going back over there.”

He grinned daringly at her, “make me.”

“Dan.”

“Amy.”

He grinned as she glared and he couldn’t help but wonder if this is what it would be like to go to sleep next to her every night.

“Turn off the lights.” he said rolling over and facing the wall. 

He heard her sigh heavily, make an annoyed sound, and then lightly push him as if that was going to get him to move. When it became apparent that he wasn’t going to get out of bed, she turned the lights off and he heard her move some things around.

He assumed she was plugging her phone in and getting settled into the bed. He turned back around to face her in the dark.

“Now, is this so bad?”

“It wasn’t until you began to speak.”

“Sleep dreams, pumpkin.” 

“Fuck off, Dan.”

He chuckled and reached for her in the dark to plant one last hard kiss on her lips before they both drifted off to sleep. 

He half expected to wake up with his arms full of Amy and he wasn’t even in the least bit annoyed that she didn’t give in to him when he knew that he could try again the next night. One of the many advantages of knowing what was going to happen next was that he knew Amy would be feeling particularly frisky because of their win and since they were sharing a room, he wouldn’t just get a meaningless ‘see you later.’ Also, he had a plan to get rid of Sophie’s meddling, so tomorrow they could have all the time in the world.

Plus, there was a dinner he could use to his advantage to seduce her a bit more.

So while the plan hadn’t been executed quite as he had hoped, he wasn’t dismayed by the outcome. 

There was always tomorrow night and the next night after that.

After all, they were going to be in Nevada for awhile.

* * *

 

The first thing that Dan noticed when he awoke was that it was far too sunny and his head was hurting way too much. 

Putting a hand to his head, he slowly blinked his eyes open to take in why he was feeling like he’d drunk a bottle of Scotch last night and then proceeded to get run over by a bus. The first thing he did was reach for Amy to wake her up and ask if she had anything for a migraine - it must’ve come on from stress or something, but his hand just reached air. Actually, his hand came in contact with a familiar piece of furniture - his coffee table. 

As the room came into focus, he realized that he was on his couch, in his apartment in New York and not in Nevada where he had thought he had fallen asleep in the same bed as Amy.

He sat up much too quickly and his stomach turned as his mind replayed what he thought was the last day’s events. Had he made all of that up? Was it real? Or was it a dream? He had 100 percent lost his fucking mind.

“What the fuck.” he muttered putting a hand to his head.

He looked around for his keys, wallet, and phone. Checking the time on his phone - it read 11:07 am, 5/11/2019. 

What the hell had happened?

What happened to Nevada?

But more importantly, where was Amy?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry it wasn't just a dream. That's bad storytelling to do that, in my opinion...but...Where did Amy go? Is Dan going crazy? What's he going to do next? Will Amy ever relax?


End file.
